urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemamboPapa Joe Mambo's Cellar Full of NoiseI know a place where the music is fine and the lights are always lowpapajoemambo2010-04-19T00:39:01Zurn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:364440LA Face with the Oakland Booty Birthday2010-04-19T00:28:33Z2010-04-19T00:39:01Z"Happy Birthday To Him" Dept.:<br /><br />My buddy <a href="http://www.lestoil.net/" rel="nofollow">Les Toil</a>, also known by some by his less moniker-ey moniker of Brian Clarke, is celebrating his birthday today, and rather than filling your eyes with my originally planned rant (something about Baby Boomers, their children, a culture of entitlement and the Do It Yourself movement that is happening in reaction to that - a topic I'll revisit out here eventually) I thought I'd give the man a shout-out worthy of his talents as an artist and designer.<br /><center><br /><img src="http://lestoil.net/rock/tori.jpg"><br><br><img src="http://www.toilgirls.com/images/girls/ginger.jpg"><br><br><img src="http://www.lestoil.net/shmosite/cover1.jpg"><br />The cover art for the BOOM STUDIOS graphic novel SHMOBOTS by Les & Adam.<br><br><br></center><br /><br /><br /><br />Whether it's from his remarkable design work for film-makers like Adam Rifkin (who's film <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOSHtT1Un8U" rel="nofollow">THE DARK BACKWARD</a> introduced a running joke that Les and Adam have continued ever since - BLUMP!), his delightfully irreverant re-examining of <a href="http://www.lestoil.net/bc/ft.html" rel="nofollow">MOTHER GOOSE in painted imagery</a>, or his work as graphic designer for various bands and other creative sources, Les has a wickedly funny sense of humor combined with a delightful sense of whimsy that's child-like in that it recognizes that being a kid is just as much GARBAGE PAIL KIDS as it's an innocent and hapless period in your life.<br /><br><br><center><img src="http://lestoil.net/art/humpty.jpg"><br><br><img src="http://www.lestoil.net/rock/phantom.jpg"></center><br><br><br><br />I would be neglect if I didn't mention Les' incredible honorifics for zaftig women found on his <a href="http://www.toilgirls.com" rel="nofollow">TOIL GIRLS</a> site or the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Les-Toil/40972437228" rel="nofollow">fan group devoted to them</a> on Facebook. I'm pleased to offer my own very best wishes to a guy on the day of his hatching who knows a good Wilhelm Scream when he hears one.<br /><br /><a name='cutid1-end'></a><br><br><br /><br /><center> <a href="http://www.toilgirls.com/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.toilgirls.com/banners/luvinbanner.jpg"></a></center><br /><br />Those interested in more about Les and his work are invited to checkout the links provided in the text, and <a href="http://toilgirls.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">his blog, right here</a>.<br><br>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:364273"Well, I'm back"2010-04-11T19:07:40Z2010-04-11T21:22:13Z...and it's been a long year and a half away from blogging, I tellya whut.<br /><br />The most fascinating thing for me now, apart from examining the wreckage remaining after the pummeling that <a href="http://www.facebook.com/papajoemambo" rel="nofollow">FACEBOOK</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/papajoemambo" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a> have committed upon most blogging engines and communities, is who have actually remained here to say anything at all- and I'm amused that it's the people who are as stubborn about getting their thoughts out in something other than 140 character bites as I am. Did I say I was stubborn? I'm a very stubborn man.<br /><br /><center><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Dragon%20Lady%20Comics/Shop1.jpg"><br />The shop I now manage, where I can be found up to 75 hours a week.</center><br /><br /><br />I've had a lot happen in the intervening years of 2008 and 2009 and most of it is in relation to a promotion that I received at my place of employment that ladled on extra responsibility without adding any real monetary incentive apart from the ability to pay my bills. I've had family members contract diseases that would usually kill most other people and I've had a very close family member sucomb to that, I've had 10 year old friendships dissolve in a smear of angry distrust, and stupid pride, and acrimony, I've had people who were friends show some of their true colors (and those colors were much more corrupt than I would like to have thought they would be, and I'm still barely hanging in there when it comes to keeping myself out of financial bankruptcy. That being said, I've made some INCREDIBLE new friends and I'm beginning to wear the mantle of "ELDER STATESMAN IN A RELATIVELY YOUTH-ORIENTED COMMUNITY" with much less chaffing these days, so all has not been lost.<br /><br />And I am as stubbornly happy as ever.<br /><br />I will be updating this page with more than a YouTube entry on a basis of at least once a week - this is my promise to you. I will be cross posting these entries to Facebook, which is where I do my microblogging, and anyone who knows me from there is more than welcome to comment in the threads that are there, or here, or anywhere you should like. I'm going to try to keep this general and all purpose and "Cellar Full O'Noise" as it has been in the past, although a recent growing interest in face-to-face boardgame and RPG play may be spinning off a new blog of its own, and should that happen you all will be the first to know.<br /><br />This month marks my 6th year as a LiveJournal blogger. The whole thing makes me think of this:<br /><center><br /><lj-embed id="540" /><br /></center><br /><br />Talk to you all soon.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:363961Ok, let's Try This Again!2009-08-26T02:22:05Z2009-08-26T02:22:05Z<br><br><br /><b><u><i>"Managing The Dragon (Lady)"</i> Dept.</u>:</b><br /><br />I was reminded in a two word message from the ever-laconic Tizano deSantis that I was aproximately one year BEHIND in my explanations as to where I'm gonna be at the ENORMOUS HobbyStar FANEXPO, here in Toronto, starting Friday the 28th of August at Noon and runing til Sunday.<br /><br />Where am I in the largest fan gathering of it's kind in Canada, and the third-largest in North America?<br /><br />Well, lemme break it down.<br /><center><br /><br /><br />Well first you go here...<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Toronto_Comics_Community/Hobbystar/Part1.jpg"><br /><a name='cutid1-end'></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Then you'll be <b>here</b>...<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Toronto_Comics_Community/Hobbystar/Part2.jpg"><br /><a name='cutid2-end'></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I mean LOOK AT IT - It's <b>SPRAWLING!!</b>...<br /><br><br><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Toronto_Comics_Community/FanEXPO%202009/WheresPappy2009C.jpg"><br /><a name='cutid3-end'></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Lord Gawdamighty - <b>Zoom in more!</b>...<br /><br><br><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Toronto_Comics_Community/FanEXPO%202009/WheresPappy2009B.jpg"><br /><a name='cutid4-end'></a><br /><br /><br /><br />and I can be found right <b>HERE</b>...<br /><br><br><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Toronto_Comics_Community/FanEXPO%202009/WheresPappy2009A.jpg"><br /><br /><br /></center><br /><a name='cutid5-end'></a><br /><br />See? Easy-peasy! Come and see me!!! Even better, come and buy cool comics stuff from me!<br /><br /><br><br><br>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:354432Writer's Block: Animal Instinct2009-02-19T17:48:07Z2009-02-19T17:48:07Z<lj-template name="qotd"><br /><br />This is an easy one for me - a big ol' grizzly bear.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:354050Something for the F-List, and an indicator of better days2009-02-09T03:05:41Z2009-02-09T03:05:41Z<br><br><br><br /><br /><b><u><i>"New Cool Things"</i> Dept.</u>:</b><br /><br />There comes a moment in a generation when that generation begins to realise that they have a little more pull about the sorts of things that they see occur more than the generation that preceded them. Some people in my generation saw the election of Barack Obama as US President one such example of a kind of sea change that indicates one generation is gone and another one is taking over. Some people see the kind of "Scorched Earth" policy that has dictated US economics as being typical of the same kind of "all for me- none for you", "GREED IS GOOD" bullshittery that the disappointed hippies who became yuppies seemed to live for, and the fact that most of the whistle-blowers who are putting that mindset back into perspective are all under the age of 45 as another such indicator. This is also very likely.<br /><br />For me, it's this little number right here - <br /><center><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Stuff_Ive_Found_Online/9781594743344_large.jpg"><br /><small> Jane Austin & Seth Grahame-Smith's <b><i>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies</i></b></small><br /></center><br /><br />Coming soon, and available for pre-order from Chronicle Books.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>Pride and Prejudice and Zombies </b><i>features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen's classic novel to new legions of fans.<br /><br />Jane Austen is the author of Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and other masterpieces of English literature. Seth Grahame-Smith is the author of How to Survive a Horror Movie and The Big Book of Porn. He lives in Los Angeles. </i><br /><br /><a name='cutid1-end'></a><br><br><br><br>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:353929Got an idea...2009-02-07T16:56:46Z2009-02-07T16:56:46Z<br><br><br /><b><u><i>"State of the Pappy"</i> Dept.</u>:</b><br /><br />Hello internets, it's been a while....<br /><br />I have a couple of Big Idea Posts in the old-head-cooker right now about the nature of web 2.0 and the benefits of shamelessness, how community finds you whether you want it to or not, why David Milch is my prophet, and on the death of one hobby and the reawakening of another.<br /><br />I just have to find time to get to it.<br /><br />So, the ideas are there - I'm not blocked - I'm just dancing as fast as I can over here.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:353786Writer's Block: You Wouldn't Understand2009-02-07T16:40:52Z2009-02-07T16:40:52Z<lj-template name="qotd"><br /><br />The one I'm the proudest of is from the early 90s, and this was used before Joss Whedon used it. I'm proud of it because almost all of my circle of friends started using it instantly:<br /><br />"He's a good guy, but his Kung Fu is poor..."urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:353478I swear, I'm going to get back to more than monthly entries soon...2009-02-03T16:59:01Z2009-02-03T23:56:31Z<br><br><br />... I really need some time off, is all.<br /><br /><b><u><i>"A Pleasant Night's Entertainment"</i> Dept.</u>:</b><br /><center><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/coraline_movie_image.jpg"><br /></center><br /><br />Had the pleasure of seeing an advance screening of Henry ("Nightmare Before Christmas", "James and the Giant Peach") Selick's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's CORALINE - with none other than Mr Gaiman there to introduce the film and provide a witty Q&A afterwards.<br /><br />Any fans of Gaiman and especially of Nightmare Before Christmas owe it to themselves to check this movie out EARLY in the run to take advantage of the marvellous 3D effects and beautiful stop-motion work inside - and also to get a better idea of how much of NIGHTMARE was Selick and how much was Burton (hint: you may be surprised how much of it *isn't* Burton).<br /><br />Here's the trailer:<br /><center><br /><lj-embed id="539" /><br /></center><br /><br />...and <a href="http://www.coraline.com/" rel="nofollow">here's a link to the movie site.<br /><br><br><br></a>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:353227Writer's Block: Spoilers Below the Cut2009-02-01T18:42:30Z2009-02-01T18:42:30Z<lj-template name="qotd"><br /><br />I've done it accidentally, and, working at a comic shop, for some reason there are a lot of people who figure I already know how everything ends before I've had a chance to see it. It happens all the time, here.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:352843" 'A new broom...' does what, Mister Wint?"2009-01-24T17:24:47Z2009-01-24T17:24:47Z<br><br><br /><br />" '...sweeps clean.' Mister Kidd..."<br /><br /><b><u><i>"Acts of Surprising Philanthropy" </i> Dept.</u>;</b><br /><br />As hoisted from the blog of my deary dearest <span class="ljuser i-ljuser i-ljuser-type-P " lj:user="velocityboy" ><a href="http://velocityboy.livejournal.com/profile" target="_self" class="i-ljuser-profile" ><img class="i-ljuser-userhead" src="http://l-stat.livejournal.net/img/userinfo.gif?v=17080?v=129.2" /></a><a href="http://velocityboy.livejournal.com/" class="i-ljuser-username" target="_self" ><b>velocityboy</b></a></span>:<br /><br /><i>The first six people to respond to this post will get something made by me. It will be about or tailored to those six who respond first.<br /><br />This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:<br />- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. (Although let me know if you have any allergies)<br />- What I create will be just for you.<br />- It'll be done this year.<br />- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a mix tape. It may be a short work of fiction, or a poem. I may draw or paint something. I might bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!<br />- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.<br /><br />The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well, if you expect me to do something for you!</i><br /><br /><br><br><br>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:352700Nope - no respite... Montalban AND McGoohan2009-01-14T23:39:33Z2009-01-14T23:39:33Z<br><br><br />It was looking better for a while there...<br /><center><br /><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Heavy_Heart/McGoohanMontalban.png"><br /></center><br />We've lost both Patrick McGoohan and Ricardo Montalban in the space of a day.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Jebus Christ I need a drink.<br /><br />Proper rememberances, along with the one I owe the lot of you for Eartha, soon.<br /><br /><br><br><br>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:352477Writer's Block: Tricky Questions2009-01-13T22:21:18Z2009-01-13T22:21:18Z<lj-template name="qotd"><br /><br /><br />Like many here, either "What did I do??" or "Oh boy - now I've done it..."urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:352227It just doesn't stop, folks...2009-01-05T02:56:08Z2009-01-05T03:01:54Z<br><br><br />...can it just stop for a little while?<br /><br><br><br /><b><u><i>"With a Heavy Heart I Regret To Inform You"</i> Dept.</u>:</b><br /><br><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Heavy_Heart/Donald%20Westlake/PARKERCARDS.jpg"><small><br>"Donald Westlake's PARKER" as drawn by Darwyn Cooke<br><br><br></center></small><br /><br />Noted crime and "caper" novelist, hardboiled humourist, and (go figure)prize-winning gardener, DONALD WESTLAKE passed away December 31st, 2008. He was 75 years old.<br /><br />There are not many creators, who, just by being familiar with their work, that you can immediately bond with some of your favourite creative types with, that have had quite the same "pull" for me as Westlake had. EVERYBODY I respected creatively seemed to gravitate to this guy as well, either for PARKER or DORTMUNDER. Darwyn got to talk to him a few times last year when he was doing preliminary work on his PARKER project (Westlake wrote the Parker books in a much harsher style as Richard Stark, and, by so doing, was also the inspiration for the Richard Bachman writing persona used by Stephen King). Wait'll you see who PARKER looks like, based on Westlake's recomendation, for the first book before he sees his plastic surgeon in volume 2.<br /><br />Any opportunity I can take to preach the POINT BLANK gospel is one I'm gonna take. POINT BLANK was John Boorman's film based on Westlake's first PARKER book. Dig in, and I envy you the pleasure if you haven't ever seen this beautiful, beautiful, ripe plum for the first time yourself.<center><br><br /><lj-embed id="538" /></center><br><br><br /><br />No more "important" deaths please? Not for another two weeks?<br><br><br><br>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:351826I have a "When Joe Met Eartha" story to tell you all2008-12-26T04:24:16Z2008-12-26T04:26:27Z<b><u><i>"With a Heavy Heart I Regret To Inform You"</i> Dept.</u>:</b><br /><br /><br><br><br />Eartha Kitt passed away this afternoon after an extended battle with colon cancer. She was 82. A lot of people are going to mention her two episodes of Batman where she played Catwoman. I have a better story for y'all, and I'll post it tomorrow.<br /><center><br /><img src="http://www.roseburlingham.com/eartha02.jpg"><br /><small>I met Eartha very briefly in the summer of 1990</small><br /></center><br /><br><br><br>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:351503This seemed like a cheat, but then I parsed it - it works2008-12-24T17:18:14Z2008-12-24T17:19:36Z<br><br><br /><b><u><i>"Meme,Myself and I"</i> Dept.</u>:</b><br /><br /><br><br><br /><div style="background:#006600;text-align:center;padding:8px 32px;margin:0px 10%;border:8px #990000 solid;color:#000"><p style="font-size:1.6em;font-family:times,verdana,arial; margin:16px; color:#FFF">Papajoemambo, Papajoemambo,<br>Papajoemambo, Papajoemambo.</p><p><b>The First Noel</b><br>from the <a href="http://thesurrealist.co.uk/christmas" style="color:#fff" rel="nofollow">Christmas Song Generator</a>.</p><form action="http://thesurrealist.co.uk/christmas.php" method="get">Get your own song : <input type="text" name="word" size="10"> <input type="submit" value="Sing"></form></div><br><br><br /><h1><center>MERRY CHRISTMAS, INTERNETZ!!!<br><br></h1></center>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:351280listening to "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love & Understanding - Nick Lowe" on Blip2008-12-18T01:48:24Z2008-12-18T01:48:24Z<a href="http://blip.fm/~17d3f">o Funny 'Bout) Peace Love & Understanding </a>Hope-ey Christmas everyone.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:351057listening to "The Cat Carol - Meryn Cadell" on Blip2008-12-18T01:40:22Z2008-12-18T01:40:22Z<a href="http://blip.fm/~17cz4">arol - M</a>My favourite non-traditional Christmas song. This one understands the holiday & that means that it's not a happy one at all. That's kind of a warningurn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:350536listening to "Carol of the Old Ones - HPLHS" on Blip2008-12-18T01:28:42Z2008-12-18T01:28:42Z<a href="http://blip.fm/~17ct8">the Old O</a>Lovecraftian caroling for those dreading the solstice.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:349983listening to "Coventry Carol - Loreena McKennitt" on Blip2008-12-18T01:27:41Z2008-12-18T01:27:41Z<a href="http://blip.fm/~17csl">Carol - Loreen</a>Elizabethan carol, sung by someone more or less forgotten now.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:349775listening to "Louis Armstrong - Zat You, Santa Claus - " on Blip2008-12-18T01:25:21Z2008-12-18T01:25:21Z<a href="http://blip.fm/~17crq">strong - Zat You, San</a>Satchmo swings out a holiday standard.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:349461listening to "I Believe In Father Christmas - Ella&Embrace" on Blip2008-12-18T00:57:18Z2008-12-18T00:57:18Z<a href="http://blip.fm/~17cdy"> In Father Christmas - E</a>A personal favourite - probably one of the best secular Christmas songs, definately the best atheist one.urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:349357"I never understood how anyone believed those poses were sexy. To be tied up? I don’t get it."2008-12-15T05:08:49Z2008-12-15T05:22:30Z<br><br><br /><b><u><i>"Loving Bettie Page"</i> Dept.</u>:</b><br><br /><br /><i>“I was generally happy posing, and that seemed to shine through in the pictures.... Nobody knew this, but I used to imagine the camera was my boyfriend, and I was making love to him. I had fun teasing the guy with the camera until he was in sync with whatever mood I was in.”</i><br /><center><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Women_We_Love/Bettie_Page/photogs.jpg"><br /><small>With one of the many photoclubs who she would charge a group rate to take her photos - they would each get their own photos and she would live off the money for a month.</small></center><br /><br /><br /><center><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Women_We_Love/Bettie_Page/WebSet1.jpg"><br /><small>Posing for Bunny Yeager - Posing with a photoclub amateur - A candid after a shoot, unaware she's being photographed & not looking very happy.</small></center><br><br />For someone who really didn't want to "raise a fuss" and would teasingly ask people who Bettie Page was if she was recognized back when she was posing, there's been an awful lot said about Bettie in the past few days. Even now, if she was aware of what was going on she wouldn't believe it. Late last year Bettie Page's advancing diabetes and arthritis had made it very difficult for her to do a lot of writing by hand. She asked Steve Brewster who ran the BETTIE SCOUTS OF AMERICA fan club and who recieved mail from fan club members for her on her birthday and at Christmas time to thank them all very much for their well-wishing but that because, this year, she wouldn't be able to send them back a thank you note it didn't seem right for them to send her cards or small presents or baked goods they way they usually did. It really upset her that she couldn't offer her thanks. Later when her brother died, she was overwhelmed by the support and condolences from the fans. <br /><br /><i>“It was all pretend,"Page explained. "According to my arrangement with the Klaws, you had to do an hour of bondage poses in order to get paid for the other modeling work.” Looking at such photos in recent years (now they seem almost tame), she would laugh and comment, “Oh, I look like a meanie here... But honestly, who could take any of this seriously? I never understood how anyone believed those poses were sexy. To be tied up? I don’t get it.”</i><center><br><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Women_We_Love/Bettie_Page/laff.jpg"><br /><small>Cracking up at how silly some of the Klaw scenarios were.</small><br><br /></center><br />On Friday, once the news had been confirmed that Bettie hadn't survived her coma, Brewster sent a message out to the fan club confirming that Bettie would be interred very close to Marilyn Monroe, that the ceremony was meant only for her family and that security would be strict - but, that being said, flowers could be sent no sooner than December 15th for Bettie's funeral the following day, to:<br /><br />PIERCE BROTHERS WESTWOOD MEMORIAL VILLAGE MEMORIAL PARK<br />1218 Glendon Ave.<br />Westwood, CA 90024<br /><br />I hope my friends in the LA area can make what they can with that.<br /><center><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Women_We_Love/Bettie_Page/WebSet2.jpg"><br /></center><br />There have been a lot of people saying a lot of things about Bettie Page and what she meant to them and I wouldn't want to over-emphasise my own affection for Bettie and what she represented to me, and only pay lip-service to the people for whom she really was something of a lightning rod to the way they saw themselves and the way they lived their lives. I had found her the way many of us had through the work of Dave Stevens in "The Rocketeer" in the back pages of Mike Grell's STARSLAYER magazine for Pacific Comics. I had no idea that Dave was drawing himself as the main character, his mentor at Hanna Barbera Doug Wildey as the character's mentor, and his one true ideal woman Bettie Page as the three protagonists in the strip. I have to admit that it was quite arresting when I saw this, tho:<center><br><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Women_We_Love/Bettie_Page/rockateerpanel2.gif"></center><br /><br />and then this:<center><br><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Women_We_Love/Bettie_Page/rocketeerbetty01.jpg"><br /></center><br><br />and then I was sunk like everyone else.<br /><br />Dave would meet Bettie through Hugh Hefner as a result of his book being optioned as a film for Disney. In many ways, Dave was one of the few people that Bettie trusted at all when it came to protecting her privacy and the fact that he was nothing but respectful to her and her desire to live out the rest of her life as a happily Born-Again Christian woman. Dave once went over to his friend Mark Evanier's office, Evanier being quite a pundit in matters animated and comic-book related himself, to ask him how to sort something out for Bettie and Evanier was astonished to find himself on the phone talking with her about how residual payments worked. Evanier said he imagined her at the age of 26,in black and white, talking to him about royalties. Stevens was not unfamilar with how surreal it had become. "It's amazing," he told Mark. "After years of fantasizing about this woman, I'm now driving her to cash her Social Security checks." He was like a trusted nephew to Bettie and he knew how hard it was or her to let people in at all outside of her narrow group of carefully chosen friends and the people who knew her at church. One evening in 2003, Dave invited her out to dinner at a small restaurant for her birthday and she went - Dave told her that they'd stop by the Playboy mansion afterwards because Hef was still a friend of Bettie's (she posed for their first Christmas centrefold in 1955)and it wasn't uncommon for them to go to Hefner's screening room to watch a movie and just talk about old times. It was in hefner's screening room that Bettie had seen Jennifer Connolly play the character Dave had based on her in THE ROCKETEER. What she didn't know was that Hef had planned a surprise birthday party for her. She was a little angry - she would have at least wanted to dress for it - but meeting people like Olivia deBernadis and a house full of people who were others that Hefner knew Bettie admired made it worth her while. If Hefner hadn't thrown that party, Bettie would never have come to the PLAYBOY 50th anniversary shortly afterwards and we'd have never seen what she looked like now:<center><br><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Women_We_Love/Bettie_Page/2003Parties.jpg"><br /><small>Olivia, Hef and Bettie - a detail of Bettie, unprepared for a photo - and Anna Nicole, Bettie & Pammie (Bettie having dyed and dressed - in her first photo for publication in 45 years)</small><br /></center><br><br />Bettie was deeply saddened when Dave passed away earlier on this year at the age of 55 as a result of complications from the leukemia he had developed, but after the death of her baby brother last year she had begun to have gotten used to the prospect of most of the people she had loved being gone and this was something that Brewster had sadly had to let the fan club know. I think most of us knew it wouldn't be much longer for her - Steve had said that she had sounded incredibly depressed when he had spoken to her and that was never a good sign. Bettie had had bouts with clinical depression and had been diagnosed and hospitalized as a paranoid schitzophrenic for years in the late 1980s - before any of the Betty Fever had struck the alternative culture in the form of T Shirts and Posters and reissues of images that she'd had nothing to do a thing with for 30 years. She was loved by those new fans more ardently, much more so, than she was by the fans in the first wave back in the 1950s. She was overjoyed and flattered to see how a preponderance of her fans had been women this time around. That had never happened before. Not at all. <center><br><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Women_We_Love/Bettie_Page/leopards.jpg"></center><br /><br />I was going to say a lot about what she meant to me, but it just would be me reiterating what I usually say about these things. That Bettie at her finest and at the happiest period of her life was an example of someone letting the beauty of their heart come out through their eyes - smiling and welcoming us all to recognize that it doesn't matter who you are, what the clothing you wear might mean to somebody who would never wear it themselves, or for that matter, what your body was like when the clothing was off of it and how much the thought of being exposed threatened people who would never let themselves be seen that way. Bettie loved that mysterious person she imagined when she looked in the camera from the bottom of her heart, and in each and every one of her photos we can see her welcoming that person to be with her in the outfits and bathing suits she had carefully and skillfuly sewn herself, shutting out the pain and frustration as she left one frightening situation after the other in her life. If you were looking at that photo, that mysterious stranger she was smiling at was you. She invited you to just have some fun for the moment you were watching her - and no matter what, she loved you. You can still see it on every one of the photos here on this page. You can see it as plain as her sky blue eyes and the joy in her smile.<br /><br><br><br /><a name='cutid1-end'></a><br><br><br><br><br><br>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:348941Well, this is just awful2008-12-12T04:16:21Z2008-12-12T04:24:15Z<br><br><br /><b><u><i>"With a Heavy Heart I Regret To Inform You"</i> Dept.</u>:</b><br /><br />After being ready to leave hospital after three weeks for being treated for pneumonia, legendary pin-up model BETTIE PAGE suffered a heart attack and fell into a coma on December 2nd. She passed away at 7:30 PST this evening.<br /><center><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Women_We_Love/Bettie_Page/bettie03.jpg"><br /></center><br /><br />I'll have something here for Bettie this weekend.<br /><br><br><br>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:348780When 4E Met Sirki - Sharing The Wealth (part 2 of 2)2008-12-08T04:42:22Z2008-12-09T06:12:24Z<br><br><br /><b><u><i>"With A Heavy Heart I Regret To Inform you"</i> Dept.</u>:</b><br /><br /><a href="http://papajoemambo.livejournal.com/348661.html" rel="nofollow">We've seen how Forrest Ackerman was instrumental in the creation of, amongst other things, one of the first,if not the original, Lesbian magazines in America</a>, but this next bit involves a friend of mine.<br /><br /><center><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Heavy_Heart/Forrest%20Ackerman/LonApes1.png"><br /><small>Kim Hunter is prettified and The Master shows his toolkit</small><br /></center><br /><br />My friend Daragh Hayes, when *he* was about 10 years old and quite possibly the biggest Planet Of The Apes fan in the small Northern Ontario town of his origin, went on a cross Canada roadtrip to L.A. with his family and had a copy of FMOF in his possession. Darragh saw the open invitation that Forry always had in the letter column inviting people to the Ackermuseum, and thinking it was some kind of wax museum like he had seen in Niagara Falls earlier in his travels with his folks, Darragh called the number, spoke to a kindly sounding old man on the phone, and before he knew it was being shown around Forry's living room with his Dad while his Mom and sister did some shopping nearby. Daragh later told me, when we were both collating a batch of crap at Kinkos where we worked together that it was EXACTLY as you would think it would be. Forry saw the reverance that Daragh had for the left over Cornelius mask that Roddy McDowall had given Forry personally, and the autographs, and Forry had worn the Boris Karloff MUMMY ring and the Lugosi DRACULA ring the way he always did when he was doing a guided tour. Daragh admitted to him that he would love to do monster make up like the stuff he saw in the magazine that fans sent in and that Forry would always publish - and Forry reminded him that people like Rick Baker and Steven Spielberg and Stephen King had started out just as he did and he could do whatever he wanted to do if he devoted his energy to it and it was something that meant a lot to him. When Forry asked Daragh about the stuff he loved, Ackerman was genuinely pleased to see that, not only did Daragh know his stuff when it came to monster movies, but that he knew the older figures in monster movies as well as he knew the newer ones. It was because of this that he asked Daragh if he knew what one item inparticular was. It was a toolbox made of enameled leather about a foot tall and wide and about two feet long, with a clasp lock and a handle on th etop of it. He opened it up and there was dried greasepaint and tubes of mortician's wax and wire and cotton inside and a few flattened rolls of old latex at the bottom of the case. It was Lon Chaney Sr's make up kit, given to Forry by Lon Jr and Daragh and Forry were both poking through it, gingerly, with their fingers. Finally, Forry said "Here", and tore off a small two by two inch strip of latex and gave it to Daragh "This is for you. There's a lot of it in there and I know Lon would have wanted it to go to a fan." Daragh his mind, already blown, just teared up and thanked him. As they were leaving, Daragh's Dad was thanking Forry profusely for having them in, and Ackerman leaned over to him and said "He might never do make-up or be involved in the movies or arts at all - he might be a doctor or a lawyer or something someday, but I think it's safe to say that he'll never forget this."<br /><br />Daragh admitted, at the end of the story, that he lost the piece of latex in a house move a few years later. After a brief burst of celebrity playing music across North America and Europe in a punk band in his 20s, Daragh travels the world teaching a variety of languages, and he's very happy doing it. I know that if he reads that Forry passed last Thursday he'll miss him like an Uncle too.<br /><center><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Heavy_Heart/Forrest%20Ackerman/ForryRayMasks.gif"><br /><small> </small><br /></center><br><br />The important thing, to Forry anyway, was that if you had a passion for something and you had a means of expressing that passion, you shared the wealth - no matter how stupid it made people feel when they didn't "get it". You *could* help people out by being creative and nurture their creativity as you did it. Whether it was opening his house to show his treasures to total strangers from all over the world, or acting as a literary agent getting friends of his (including Ed Wood and Robert Bloch and L Ron frigging Hubbard) published through the many contacts he had amassed through the 30s and 40s, or publishing the world's first and arguably most popular monster magazine because you had stacks and stacks of 8x10" B&W photos that would cost you nothing to use, you shared the wealth at your disposal. Amazing things would come about as a result of that whenever you did. We're talking about the guy who even created COSPLAY fer Chrissakes - his girlfriend Myrtle R. Douglas designed and created the first "futuristicostume" which Forry proudly wore at the 1st World Science Fiction Convention in 1939 - nobody had ever come to a conference in costume before. Forry believed in sharing the wealth, and for something like 80 of his 92 years that's exactly what he did - still conducting tours of the much smaller Mini-Mansion up until last year, doing interviews, attending the 50th anniversary Warren publishing panel at San Diego Comicon last summer - still reading, still writing, still making Gawdawful puns. He has no survivors, he and his wife Wendy never had any children - but in many ways those of us who were treated to his deep and all abiding love of the fantastic are his children, and it's up to us to keep sharing the wealth that investing in imagination and creativity inevitably reproduces in the people to whom it really takes root.<br /><br />So long, Forry.<br /><br><br>urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:papajoemambo:348661When 4E Met Sirki - Ackerman the Lesbian(pt 1 of 2)2008-12-08T03:59:53Z2008-12-08T05:12:31Z<br><br><b><u><i>"With A Heavy Heart I Regret To Inform You"</i> Dept.</u>:</b><br /><br><br />Forrest J Ackerman, whenever he ran a list of obituaries in <b>Famous Monsters of Filmland</b> would make reference to Prince Sirki, the pseudonym that Death itself would take in the move "<i> DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY</i>" and say that he had appointments with each of the people he was paying homage to. Well, Forry had his inevitable meeting with Prince Sirki on Thursday night, December 4th and although the Prince waited politely about a month for Forry to read how much we loved him on his FACEBOOK page, the two of them finally sat down and had a head to head.<br /><center><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Heavy_Heart/Forrest%20Ackerman/Sirki.jpg"><br /><small> Frederick March as Prince Sirki with Katherine Alexander in DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY</small></center><br /><br />I was going to tell a long story about how I first found Forrest Ackerman and his magazine FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND as a result of my almost religious obsession with the first STAR WARS movie in the Fall of 1977 and how the stuff that he had put into an issue that had plenty of SW coverage, despite a JAWS VERSUS APE cover finally got me past what was almost a crippling chicken-shittery as a kid (seriously, if you were to look in the dictionary under the word "Pussy" before I turned 12 you'd have seen an image of a cat, and then, after that, an image of me in my bowl-cut looking frightened). I was gonna talk about how he was the epitome of the fans that I knew as I was growing up. How he, in years of concentrated devotion to the things he loved, "<i>scienti-fiction</i>" and fantasy, had more or less established what the far end of geekery could be. <br /><center><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Heavy_Heart/Forrest%20Ackerman/ForrySquamous.png"><br /><small> My first issue of FMoF(left)- Forry makes a friend, San Diego 2002(right)<br></small><br /></center><br />He was more than just an outstanding expert in his field of interest, he was one of the patriarchs of the deeply personal, displaced but present, <i>*inner*</i> family that I think we all aggregate at one time or another, especially in our teen years. I think a lot of people do it with musicians they like, or movie stars. I did that to some degree with movie stars too, but when it comes to some of those idols it's always much more than just an appreciation. These are the people who we, at least on some kind of <b>projected</b> level, deeply, ardently, wish were relatives, and who we know would "get it" when the time came. There are blood relatives who understood me less than Ackerman did, or at least I knew in my heart that he would - and people like Forry were the ones I could always fall back on outside of my immediate family when I needed some kind of relief in the form of a spiritual if not actual Uncle. So Forry was Uncle Forry the way Chuck Jones was Uncle Chuck, and Henson was Uncle Jim, that HP Lovecraft is Grampa Howard and, for me at least, Billy Van was Billy, Stan Lee was just Stan, and evermore shall be so. This was and still is rather inviolable. All of these people were sacrosanct in the way that it's very important for them to be when you're that age. I'm not going to go any more into that right now, tho. I'm going to talk a little more about Forry and I'm going to tell you about Edith Eyde, a prominent activist in the early gay rights movement, and Daragh Hays, a punk rock kid from Northern Ontario.<br /><center><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/papajoemambo/Heavy_Heart/Forrest%20Ackerman/LisaDaragh.jpg"><br /><small> Edith Eyde and Daragh Hays</small><br /></center><br /><br />Pam Keesey, a writer and editor in Seattle, tells the story of how Forry, an avid reader outside of SF and Fantasy materials as well, had stumbled upon Radclyffe Hall's ground-breaking lesbian novel<i> The Well of Loneliness</i> and shared it with Edith Eyde. Eyde, a fellow fan in the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society that Forry had founded in 1926, was working as a secretary at the RKO movie studios. Forry just knew, somehow, she would like it. Edith explained to Forry after some discussion that she saw herself reflected in the book and adopting the pen name Lisa Ben (move the letters around - sounds like a Forry name, doesn't it?) started the West Coast's first lesbian themed magazine <i>VICE VERSA</i>with Forry's encouragement. The problem was, all of her friends who would be the most likely contributors wouldn't do so for fear of the possibility of outing themselves to friends and family. Lisa asked him what she should do - Forry adopted the name Laurajean Ermayne and wrote lesbian themed romance and fantasy stories for her. In <i>Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-century America</i>, Laurajean Ermayne is quoted as a formative figure in the development of lesbian fiction. Forry was also involved with the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian organization in the U.S. formed in 1955, when, after "Laurajean" was invited to one of their events he was sadly about to be turned away at the door when Eyde stepped in and let them know who he was. He was declared an "honorary lesbian" on the spot and welcomed in, and would often attend gay-specific fantasy conventions as a Guest of Honour from that point on.<br /><br /><a href="http://papajoemambo.livejournal.com/348780.html" rel="nofollow"> Click right here for the second part</a><br /><br><br>